“I hope they’re raising hell and I hope they stay for every single note,” Blackberry Smoke vocalist Charlie Starr tells me enthusiastically before their show in Biloxi. It was a statement that would suddenly change when bassist Richard Turner ended up in the ER with food poisoning right before they were to hit the stage. So what happens when a monkey wrench is thrown into your life? You throw the monkey wrench right back where it came from.
Blackberry Smoke is a fun, full-of-enthusiasm southern rock band out of Atlanta, Georgia. They’ve been humping the venues big and small for the past ten years and have built up quite a faithful following. They rock out and electrify audiences with a style that is infectious and boogie-woogie satisfying. But on this night, the tempo changed. Deciding to go on with the show they walked out on stage with the bare minimum of instruments and announced to the crowd that “it’s good from time to time to play the songs like they were written”; and then proceeded into acoustic versions of some of their most popular tunes.
It’s good to see a band adjust. It’s good to see a band play in a format that shows off their raw talents. Sometimes you just want to hear the sound of a guitar being strummed or an organ lilting through a room or a voice without effects. It tends to separate the men from the boys.
“We’ve worked a lot of years,” Charlie explained to me about the band’s struggle to be where they are today. “We started traveling immediately when we formed the band. We hadn’t been together a month and we were out on the road for a month opening for Jackyl”. Surprisingly, it was the Yankees up north who took a shine to the band first. “We hadn’t really played at home in Georgia very much so the first shows where we seemed to do best were up in Wisconsin and Michigan and Minnesota. I don’t know if it’s something about being southern that those people were really intrigued by but whatever it was I appreciate them all. We kept going back there. I was like, ok, they’re biting up here, here’s where we go (laughs).” But then they would come back home and “we’d play for nobody. It was tough, discouraging, but then little by little we just kept working and we traveled all over … We’ve never really had any help at radio or anything like that so the way that we get people to hear our music is to take it to them”.
And the fans that were in attendance were treated to a set list that had them dancing, singing and cheering. Vocalist Charlie Starr, guitarist Paul Jackson, drummer Brit Turner and on the lovely Hammond organ Brandon Still, grew more and more lively with each tune they played. From “One Horse Town” with its beautiful guitar and melody, to the new “Too High” and fun “Shake Your Magnolia”, Blackberry Smoke proved to be a band on the horizon of good times and good fortunes.
Case in point: Originally the band had traveled to Biloxi with the intention of playing and then heading back home to Georgia. But earlier that day Charlie had received an exciting phone call. “My feet haven’t touched the ground since 2:00 this afternoon,” Charlie said, a huge grin crossing his face. “On our last album we recorded a song [“Yesterday’s Wine”] with George Jones and Jamey Johnson. And George Jones is playing the Ryman tomorrow night for the last time and I got invited to go up and sing that song with him … So we’re going to Nashville”. And how does a young buck southern rock band get a legend like George Jones to sing on their album? “I had actually sent Jamey Johnson a message asking him if he wanted to record that song with us, just Blackberry Smoke and Jamey Johnson, and he said absolutely … So I called the record company guys back and said, ok, Jamey’s going to do it, let’s go in the studio and record this. And that’s when they said, how would you like to have George Jones sing on it as well? Everybody knows the answer to that question (laughs)”.
George Jones and Jamey Johnson aren’t their only admirers. The Smoke has opened for and/or jammed with some pretty big names: ZZ Top, Slash, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Kid Rock, to name a few. “It’s great. They’re all rock stars, they’re heroes, and so we watch,” explained Charlie. “I, for one, definitely get a little starstruck but they’re all such cool people and when you put your heart and soul into what you do like they do, and I feel like we do too. Well, I know we do. I watch us every night and I watch my boys around me and its real music, it’s not fake. We’re not fake people. We only know how to be who we are.”
Upon first glance at the band, you would think they were throwbacks to the days of the 1970’s when long hair, beards and a southern accent were all the rage. When I asked Charlie whether that was one of the biggest misconceptions about the band, he got serious. “I don’t know”, he mused. “I really don’t even mind that because to me that music, the reason it’s important and the reason it will live forever, is because it’s great and pure and it’s not pop music. It’s not something that is going to be forgotten and it’s the soundtrack to our life. So I could never disown it if I wanted to … We never sat down and said we want to sound like this. It’s just the way we sound when we play.”
Starting off a bit somberly, they were fircracking by the time they kicked into “Good One Comin’ On”. By “Who Invented The Wheel” mid-set, they had the crowd eating out of the palm of their hand. For one, Charlie is full of southern wit and charm. When someone kept yelling out “Who dat?” after every song, Charlie remarked, “I sure wish I knew a song called Who Dat?” before kick-stomping into his own version of the New Orleans Saints catchphrase, receiving plenty of whoops and hollers. And after telling the story of his youth in a small town where people called him Peanut, the crowd was not hesitant to holler “What’s up, Peanut?” every chance they got.
It was a fun night for a fun-loving band, despite the incident with Richard. “Recession be damned,” Charlie stated strongly before the show. “People still want to come out and listen to music”. Charlie and Paul proved that guitar picking never ever goes out of style; especially on “One Horse Town”, “Too High”, “Deep Elem Blues” and the swampy slide intro to “Sanctified Woman”. “Sleepin’ Dogs Lie” was a special treat with Charlie’s fine guitar work that blended together with Brandon’s Hammond and a chorus of “Midnight Rider” before kicking back into this funky little song.
Currently doing some recording, they just signed with Zac Brown’s label. “The skies are blue,” said Charlie happily. “Everything looks good”. Trying to stay positive in a music industry that is currently having problems of its own, Charlie believes Blackberry Smoke will succeed. “Our live show is, well, I love it and I’m biased of course (laughs). But it kind of covers everything that we do: there’s some really rocking stuff and some good honky tonk stuff and we jam some and we just give it all we got.”
Opting out of playing their biggest hit “Up In Smoke” (despite the many calls for it) “out of respect for our sick brother”, it was not a disappointing night by any means. When you realize you have smiled and tapped your feet the whole time the band was playing, you know this was a special evening. When told of a comment posted by a fan that Blackberry Smoke was the “top Southern rock band of the new millennium”, Charlie was surprised – almost. “Well, I hope so, that’s flattering … I believe in us”. And so did the fans that had gathered in the Hard Rock Live.
